DAYTONA BEACH, Fla. (AP) —The qualifying session forNASCAR’s biggest race of theyear was lambasted by Tony Stew-art as “a complete embarrass-ment” and called a “cute show” byClint Bowyer.

The frenetic knockout formatended with Jeff Gordon on thepole for the final Daytona 500 ofhis career.

And as NASCAR executive vicepresident Steve O’Donnell tried toanswer to the wave of displeasurefrom the drivers after Sunday’ssession, he was reminded by Gor-don himself what a predicamentthe series is in regarding qualify-ing for “The Great AmericanRace.”

“Great format, Steve!” Gordonshouted to O’Donnell from theback of a news conference room.

Indeed, Gordon had no qualmswith qualifying after he and Hen-drick Motorsports teammate Jim-mie Johnson outsmarted the fieldSunday to sweep the front row forthe Daytona 500. They wereamong only a handful of driverswho were pleased with the for-mat, and their opinion was mostcertainly based on the end result.

“This format is crazy and chaot-ic,” Gordon said. “It can be ex-tremely rewarding when youhave a day like we had.”

NASCAR abandoned single-carqualifying runs, the format usedfor 56 years at Daytona Interna-tional Speedway, for the knockoutgroup sessions it adopted last sea-son. The format was not tried at

the Daytona 500 last year, but wasused at the speedway in July.

The group qualifying worksfine at most racetracks, but hasbeen proven tricky at Daytonaand Talladega, where driversmust draft and the leader is notthe fastest car. It’s led to strate-gies that have drivers sitting onpit road watching the clock, andjockeying for position when it’stime to go.

After a five-car accident in thefirst group of 25 drivers, Bowyerrailed against using knockouts toset the Daytona 500 field. Reign-

MONDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2015 BA Hollywood screenwriter in

charge of the next big feel-goodsports movie could not have con-cocted a more appropriate scene.

Larry Taylor slid his hand upagainst the framed picture on the

wall, while gaz-ing deep intothe portraits offormerCarnegie play-ers who smiledand took aknee on thehardwood floorin their por-traits beneaththe glass.

Taylor stillremembers al-most all ofthem.

“Déjà vu, to-tal déjà vu,” hesaid beforecoaching theHollis boys

basketball team at Carnegie lastFriday.

Like Kelly Kapowski, NewKids on the Block and Nirvana,Hollis and Carnegie were staplesof the 1990s. They kept a seasonalMarch home at State Fair Arena,and also staged some classics inarea tourna-ment finals be-fore that.

Carnegie,then undercurrentAnadarkocoach DougSchumpert,won one of itstwo championships that decade,one in 1992, defeating Taylor’sTigers in the finals. Taylor andHollis returned the favor in ‘98 bybeating Carnegie for a gold ball.

But because all those meetingswere in the playoffs, until last Fri-day, Taylor had never set foot inCarnegie’s gym — the houseSchumpert helped build beforehanding things off to Kirk Gra-ham. The building gives off eerievibes. It’s a shrine to basketball

the locals simply know as HoopCity, surely one of the state’smore unique high school sportsenvirons.

Before soaking in a rivetinglive rendition (too many record-ings these days) of the Star Span-gled Banner, followed by HoopCity’s signature player introduc-tions — house lights off, spotlighton and the crowd on edge — Tay-lor paced around the bowels ofthe venerable gym looking atghosts on the wall.

His stare drove deep into thepicture frames honoring some ofCarnegie’s best teams, who all toooften Taylor had the task of de-feating.

“It was a little spooky, like step-ping straight to the past,” Taylorsaid. “I look up there and see(Beau) Toyekoyah, Terrell Hill, allthose guys we played against.”

Toyekoyah, of course, was akey figure in Carnegie’s 12-pointcomeback in the final 23 secondsthat knocked off Mt. St. Mary inthe 1988 championship game. He

stole an inbounds pass and madea layup with one second left forthe win.

Hill was one of the state’s bestplayers in the ‘90s. At 6-foot-7, heaveraged 21.5 points and 10.5 re-bounds per game his senior year.In 1997, he was Oral Roberts Uni-versity’s top recruiting target —back when the school wascoached by a guy named Bill Self.Coaches somewhere up in Kansasnow.

I caught Taylor in deep thoughtglaring at those faces on the wallbefore catching his attention. Hesandbagged his way through ourconversation. Asked me why Ihad come to cover a blowout ofwhich, he was sure, his teamwould be on the receiving end.

Instead his guys — underratedand unranked at 24-10 this year —were mostly dominant until thefourth quarter, when Carnegiemade a failed comeback, butbrought the score close enough toignite the building and revivewhat once was one of Southwest

Oklahoma’s premier basketball ri-valries.

Oh, those days. Taylor said open-heart surgery

in 2013 — he was on a heart pumpfor seven hours — has affectedhis memory, but he’ll never forgetthose days.

“Those memories are stuck,”he said. “Utmost respect forCarnegie. A lot of teams you play,there’s hard feelings. But nonehere.”

Hollis went to eight state tour-naments under Taylor before hisretirement in 2000. He made a tri-umphant return last year and theTigers reached the Class A semi-finals. At 65 years old, he is stillspry as ever.

But if Taylor does hang up hiscoat, tie and whistle sooner ratherthan later, he’ll always have lastweek’s trip down memory lane.

His first tour of Hoop City. TPALMATEER@SWOKNEWS.COM

Hollis’ Taylor finally gets tour of Hoop City

INSIDE

PAIRINGS, RESULTSAND SCHEDULESFOR CLASS A ANDB PLAYOFFS, 4B

TYLER

PALMATEER

SPORTS WRITER

SCOTT RAINS/STAFF

Last on the flat track during the 2013 season, Trigger Trixie is one of the expe-rienced jammers set to lead 580 RollerGirls into their first season as part of theWomens Flat Track Derby Association.The season kicks off at Enid on Saturday.

BY SCOTT RAINSSTAFF WRITERSRAINS@SWOKNEWS.COM

When Lawton’s 580 RollerGirlstravel to Enid on Saturday night,they’re rolling in with freshwheels, a new coach and the op-portunity to hitthe flat track bigtime.

The team kicksoff its 2015 seasonwith a bout at 7p.m. Saturdayagainst the homeEnid Roller Girls,the first of tworoad games be-fore its home sea-son opener on March 14 at GreatPlains Coliseum.

Matt Berberea is taking thecoach position and he’s got somebig skates to fill as he follows inthe flat-track path of predeces-sor Copper Penny who was also asolid skater for the team manyyears. Married to skater MollyMeet Your Maker (MarieBerberea), his roll was as specta-

tor the past three seasons. Thatchanged when Penny steppeddown and the team needed some-one at the helm. In stepped (orrolled) Berberea.

“My wife and I traveled to theState Wars derby tour-nament in November2014 and it was myfirst chance to watchsome of the elite play-ers andteams,”Berberea said.“ I was able to get agood grasp of theirstrategy and at thesame time 580 wasneeding a new headcoach. All of the leaguemembers voted and Ibecame the coach officially thisJanuary.”

Although never part of a coach-ing staff, Berberea said he grewup playing travel roller hockeyso he understood skating skillsand drills and he had ideas for thestructure. After meeting with thetraining committee and teamcaptains, he’s implemented some

of their ideas into the trainingschedule. He said he’s also spenta considerable amount of timewatching previous game films aswell as film from ranked teamsto see what can be gleaned to

achieve the best poten-tial. He said he has a lotof that to work with.

“I’ve learned in thattime the team is verycompetitive, I knowmost athletes are, but Ifeel some folks don’tappreciate how impor-tant winning and losingis to the team,”Berberea said. “Derbycarries a stigma in thegeneral public of beingfake or somehow less

official than other sports but Ican guarantee that couldn’t befurther from the truth.”

Fortunately, 580 has some ex-perience returning for the 2015season. Although sporting asmall roster, Berberea calls thecore group outstanding.

“Last season was tough with a

RollerGirls ready tostart first WFTDA year

APJeff Gordon holds up the pole positionflag after he qualified first for theDaytona 500 NASCAR Sprint Cup Seriesrace at Daytona InternationalSpeedway on Sunday.

Gordontops polefor finalDaytona

APJames Harden, of the Houston Rockets, drives past Pau Gasol, of the Chicago Bulls,during the first half of the NBA All-Star game Sunday in New York.

Stars shine bright

BERBEREA

SEE 580, 2B

SEE NASCAR, 3B

STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS

NEW YORK— Russell West-brook lifted the ball in the airand let it fly from the free-throw line, perhaps hoping itwould miss.

Were it to miss, the Okla-homa City Thunder guardcould have gathered the re-bound and broke the record formost points scored in an NBAAll-Star game.

His arc, however, was true,leaving the Thunder’s super-star one point shy of WiltChamberlain’s record of 42points as the West defeated theEast, 163-158.

Westbrook, who didn’t startthe game, poured in 33 pointsin just 16 minutes of playthrough three quarters, need-ing 10 more to break therecord.

He had his chances and capi-talized, but was fouled withjust over a second left in thegame. Westbrook hit the firstdead on to get to 40 points, thenspun the ball, thought and had ahigh arc to his second shot thatwent in. The East team in-bounded the ball and ran outthe clock with Westbrook onepoint away from the recordrecorded in the 1962 game.

His consolation prize was hisfirst NBA All-Star MVP award.

The Oklahoma City speed-ster had a record 27 points byhalftime.

James Harden added 29points, eight rebounds andeight assists for the West,which built a 20-point lead inthe first half and then pulledaway after it was tied at 148with a little more than 4 min-utes remaining.

LeBron James finished with30 points but couldn’t lead theEast to the victory in his fa-vorite NBA arena.